Not really a book review, but highly moral-philosophy & book-relevant... Konczal wants to reach into the past, for an American understanding that market dependency can be a source of unfreedom both when wealth is unequally and unfairly distributed and when individual market actors have too much market power and can charge unfair prices
I have the disturbing impression that this is an area of knowledge that hasn't made it into the discussions about the economy and social organization.
If not the problem, certainly a problem, is that the market functions as an excuse; the actual purpose is to guarantee wealth. Everything else is a rationalization, and there's a sharp limit on the utility of refuting rationalizations.
I want to make y'all go read https://www.chelseagreen.com/product/thinking-in-systems/ Donna Meadows' _Thinking in Systems_.
I have the disturbing impression that this is an area of knowledge that hasn't made it into the discussions about the economy and social organization.
If not the problem, certainly a problem, is that the market functions as an excuse; the actual purpose is to guarantee wealth. Everything else is a rationalization, and there's a sharp limit on the utility of refuting rationalizations.